Friends and Family,

It has been awhile since our last update, but we wanted to share with you what has been going on in my mom’s battle with multiple myeloma. 

Last fall, we learned that my mom’s cancer had returned. This was obviously extremely disappointing, as we had expected the stem cell transplant to keep her in remission for many years. Instead, she just got a few months of remission. 

After a few months of a (very expensive) oral chemo medication, her cancer numbers continued to rise at an alarming rate.  Therefore, she was shifted to a weekly infusion and injection chemotherapy at the beginning of 2023. 

This chemo allowed her numbers to *almost* get her back into remission, until her numbers started creeping back up again. Mom’s body is clearly just not responding to chemotherapy well! 

Here is where we are, and where we need prayer. Mom’s multiple myeloma specialist’s hospital in Austin has been one of the few hospitals in the nation to be approved for a new car t-cell immunotherapy trial. It is a very exciting technology that has been highly successful in other countries to provide long-term remission to the vast majority of multiple myeloma patients who go through the therapy. Her doctor believes that she is a perfect candidate for this trial. For more information on the details of this trial, please see this helpful article.

 https://apple.news/A4vxUr2ScSW2X6TJt-62wSg

Here’s where we are asking for prayer. There is a bunch of red tape to go through for St. David’s Hospital to officially receive the funding to begin the trial. We were expecting that to happen already, but it hasn’t. It’s completely out of our control, which is hard. But, we trust that God knows the timing and will provide what is best when it is best. 

Please join us in thanking God that overall, Mom has energy and is doing really well! She and my dad just returned from a long vacation (see photo) and had a great time. 

Prayer points that we are asking you to join us in:

• Please pray that the hospital gets the approval for the trial very soon so that she doesn’t have to get back on chemo.  
• Please pray that her cancer numbers remain stable while we wait. 
• Please pray for protection for her from illness. 
• Please pray that, once St David’s receives the green light, my mom passes all of her qualifying tests with flying colors. 
• Please pray for her spirits (and ours) as we wait.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. Love to you all!